- This car is almost perfect. It's so good. I love it. I've enjoyed it. The time I've driven
in it has been awesome, but I could not recommend it, because there is one thing
that is a deal breaker. It's a pretty classic deal breaker. So let's talk about the Kia EV6 GT. So I've started seeing a lot
of EV6's around on the road. I got really curious about it. This is the GT version,
so it's the slightly fast, well, a lot faster, sportier, more fun to drive version of the EV6. But I'd seen these around,
and I got curious about it, so getting to actually drive it was gonna be really eye-opening, and I'd never thought I
would like a Kia this much. I think that's what it comes down to, that this is a really, really solid and unbelievably fun vehicle to drive. So let's get into the good things, and you'll see what I mean by
the deal breaker in a second. So, you can see by the
shape what the EV6 is. It's a hatchback, it's four doors, it's got a decent amount of
space, and it's fully electric. And then like I said, there is a regular EV6 that's not the GT, so a couple ways to be able to tell that you're looking at a GT
version is these vertical slats and these design details
up here in the grill. These are also vertical design details. There's a little bit
more aggressive angles. The rear diffuser looks a little better, but the easiest way is the neon green. So these brake calipers, 21 inch wheels, it's on winter tires right now, but the neon green, definitely GT. And then, it has the same
shape as the regular EV6, which I really like. It's kind of a teardrop shape and in general, looks quite nice. It's kind of a Model Y height. That might be its most direct competitor, a little bit lower than Mustang Mach-E GT. But then also back here
you've got the sporty spoiler, so that's another way of
seeing you've got the GT. This part here sort of tilts up and acts a little bit like a spoiler, and then you've got EV6
over here and GT down there. Honestly, I think it's
a great looking car. I've seen a lot of, actually a lot of satin ones on the road. There's this satin gray color. This red one here is called,
can you read that, Runway Red, pretty classic cherry red, but let's get more into the details. So first of all, it's a hatchback. This is the key for it. I've seen some of these keys that have this forward and backward
out of parking spaces. I've not been able to get
them to work, unfortunately, but the rest of the key is pretty solid, hold here to open the hatch back, and we'll get a look at those lights and getting into the back of the EV6. There's a good amount of space. So a pretty classic telltale sign, a way of knowing that the car, that's electric that you're looking at, wasn't built from the
ground up to be electric, is if it doesn't have extra features over the gas-powered version. Like this one, it has a tiny front trunk, a little 20-liter front
trunk, but honestly, I think the space in the
back here of the EV6, it's a little less than the GT, because it's got a bigger rear motor, but I would say that this
is pretty good still too. Move the tire mobility kit and show you, tiny slot down here for charging cables and a good normal amount
of room for groceries. These all fold flat. For a $65,000 car, it would
be cool if these would... Oh, let's see if I can... Okay, they won't come
back up automatically, but that's a good amount of space. That's a good amount of space. There are no lights in the trunk, but you do get that button to close it. And here's a better look
at the rear at the lights, which I also really like. Nice taillight bar all
the way across here. This is the blinker, and this
is the electric charge port, which I do have to go
into the car to open, which I wish there was a
button on the key for it, but right here anyway, push that. And it's a normal CCS port,
which is probably a good time to address the elephant in the room, which is this car's biggest
downfall, which is its range. - [Phone AI] I'm sorry, I
didn't quite catch that. Could you please say that again? - I said, it's probably a good time to address this car's
biggest downfall, its range. (sighs) So the EV6 GT
has more powerful motors and is faster and sportier
than the regular EV6, but it didn't get a bigger battery pack. And so, with its 77-kilowatt hour battery, it has a max range of
200 miles, 200 miles. It does have 350 kilowatt charging. It is a pretty accurate 170 to 200 miles on a full battery if you
charge to 100% every time, but that's about half of
what I would hope to get for $65,000, 200 miles, so
that's the challenge here. This is the shape of a really practical, everyday type of car, which the EV6 is. It's got the backseats, and
we'll go inside in a second, but it's got the performance and the fun and the sportiness
combined with practical, just minus the practical range to do any sort of road tripping. Maybe you can do commuting every day. I've done commuting, and
I have a 30-mile commute, and it's gone well before
the end of the week. I have to recharge, so that's
something to think about. It's a deal breaker for me. I couldn't recommend or buy
this, but now knowing that, let's get into some of the
more interesting details here. So it's got these door handles
that pop out like that. We can get in, nice little entrance, and here we are in the
cockpit of the EV6 GT. There's a power button here.
(car beeping) It does say EV, and that's your power. And then this is your drive
shifter to shift to drive or to park, break hold,
parking cameras, and music. (music playing)
No, no, no. So okay, some things that I love here and some things that I don't. First of all, there's a
little bit more GT happening. There is a GT button on the steering wheel which will change drive modes, and I'll talk about the
driving in a second. But there's also, you'll notice, these really sporty GT bucket seats, which are very comfortable,
they're really nice. They're also heated along
with the steering wheel with three different levels,
and that's also great. But generally, this neon green thing is how you know you're looking at a GT, and I do really like these seats. Shout out to the back seats, which are also heated, not ventilated, but there's also a full
size power outlet back there and good enough leg room, good materials. It's a Kia, I mean, you're
gonna be pretty used to the classic, glossy plastic,
brushed metal but fake plastic, again, plastic here, a
lot of plastic up here, and some rubberized materials. This is probably where you'd say you don't wanna spend 65
grand on a car like this, but I do think it's well put together, it's just not expensive materials. Now we gotta get to this part. This is the auto focus part, the technology in the car
and how you interact with it. I could give this whole
system like a B- or a C+. Up here it's gonna remind
me a lot of the IONIQ 5, so this is a relatively
responsive piece of software, it's your computer. You do have this screen
behind the steering wheel, which is great too, 84%, 176 miles. (sighs) This is the Achilles heel. I mean I've seen as
high as like 213 miles, I think, with 100% battery. But you can dig in the settings here. The navigation is decent, and it will navigate you to chargers, and you can do a whole bunch more. I say this because, yes,
this car has Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, but
it's not wireless, okay? So there's a nice little spot
for the wireless charger here. You can pop your phone in there. It fits a huge phone.
This is an S23 Ultra. This turns orange when you're charging. It turns green when it's done charging. But then this is my navigation, and it doesn't beam it up here wirelessly. Instead, you would have to
use one of these two cables down here, which means
your phone is gonna end up down in this tray, and
as you drive around, it kind of slams around in
there, which is not ideal. So you could do that, and
it'll charge your phone wired, and you'll get it up here, but this is like the natural
place to pop your phone when you get in the car,
so it's kind of unfortunate that it doesn't have wireless
CarPlay Android auto. Nevertheless, the software is capable. It's got even these crazy
settings that will do the sound that the car makes as you're driving, so how it responds to
the accelerator pedal, the exact sounds that it makes. It can do this rumbling
sound if you're into that. The bottom line is there's a lot here, and it's fine, it's fine in the layout. I wish there was the
wireless CarPlay element, but that works for me. You also get your parking cameras here, and you do have a little
walk-around camera. So, you do get a white one no
matter what color your spec is fine, whatever, it's functional, it works. This is a very wide angle camera, but it's also functional,
you get used to it. So yeah, generally pretty good software. This part though, a little
annoying I will say, because by default, you can
see that says "volume, power," and when I change this, it's
a volume knob for your audio. My phone's connected,
that's gonna be volume. HVAC controls, I must go in
and hit this little notch here to switch it to HVAC controls. Now, this is a temperature selector, so this little knob has
two different functions depending on if you hit
this touch target or not. It makes sense, and
you can get used to it. It's just this little touch
target is kind of small, so sometimes I'll jump in the car and think I'm doing one thing, but if I miss, then I'm
doing the other thing and suddenly the volume's way up when I want to turn it up with the heat. You know, a little bit of nitpicky, but this is the type of stuff that I think you could probably improve with a few more real
switches or real buttons. I think IONIQ 5 learned the
same lesson. It is what it is. But let's talk about driving. So this has turned out to be probably the most fun EV you can
drive under 70 grand. I say that because the
only other option there would be like Mach-E GT, Tesla Model Y. The TITAN is is every bit as
fun, but it's very expensive. So that's gonna come down
to your performance figures and how capable this Kia is. I've been very impressed. This is, first of all, dual
motors, all-wheel drive, 580-ish horsepower, I'm
talking about zero to 60 in low to mid threes, and it pulls. It really keeps pulling,
just a blast to drive. And then, on top of the
straight line performance, very balanced and very fun and engaging to actually move around. So you've got this drive mode button here on the steering wheel. You can hit that and see that it switches between these three drive
modes, sport, eco and normal. But if you wanna have
a little bit more fun, I mean this changes a bunch of settings, all types of things, like the suspension, dampening, softening,
accelerator pedal responsiveness. But as soon as you wanna
have a little more fun, there's this GT button over here. Press that GT button,
everything turns the neon green. So you might not have noticed this, but you can see these little
things lighting up here. There's a lot of ambient
lighting all around the car. For these three modes, it's
eco, normal, those are blue, sport turns everything red, but then neon green GT is
gonna be your full power, traction control turns off by default, and it lets you have a little bit more fun with the way this car can
approach its own limits, and it's sick. Now the one other thing you
can get outta this GT button is a personalized MyDrive mode. And the cool thing about that is you get to choose
every single little thing, so steering response,
acceleration response, suspension. So I have everything in SPORT+, but you might want to do SPORT+
but with a softer suspension or with a little bit
more traction control, all these types of things can be adjusted in your own driving mode, and that's the one that I
drove in the most often. That's also the one that's gonna get you roughly 200 miles of range. Eco can get you a bit
more, and it does appear to turn off the front motors in eco, but it doesn't do a ton as far
as total range you can get. So it's a car you have fun in and then have to charge very quickly. In its sportiest setting, in the GT mode, the car, it seems to shrink around you. It feels smaller than it really is even though visibility is great, and there's a glass
sunroof and everything. I just mean it feels very
nimble and tight and quick. And, then you saw GT mode
has traction control off, or at least reduced, so
it allows for some slip, some under-steer, some playfulness. I love it for back roads, 'cause it really lets
you stay on the power more through curves and
play with a little bit. But that's unlike the sport mode, which is closer to a lot of other cars, which cuts power, limits any
slip, and most of the time, keeps you planted when
the wheel is turned. Either way, it's great to have both, and the bigger brakes on
the GT are also great. Maybe my only nitpicky driving complaint is that steering is kind of video-gamey, 'cause there's not a ton of actual feel, but also the firmest suspension setting is just a little bit bouncy
sometimes, just a little bit. There is also a drift
mode. I didn't try it. It's in New Jersey on winter tires, I'm not trying to do that on
a public road, but it's there. Oh, also such a minor detail,
but on the steering wheel, this is volume up, this is
volume down, makes perfect sense. This is previous track,
and this is next track. I think that's backwards. But you know what, that's the idea. That's what a lot of people are
looking for in a car, right? Let me just open the
front trunk real quick, so I can at least show you it. The combination of practical
and fun, practical and fun. I think with this Kia, you
get 75% of the practical and a 90% of the fun, and I
think they maybe could have gone to the actual maximum of practical if they had designed this around having maybe a little bit more
storage space up at the front. I mean that's literally almost nothing. You could fit a bagel in there maybe, but the fun part is pushed about as far as I think you could have
at this price, it's awesome. So, if I'm thinking about
who should buy this car, who would I actually
recommend this car to, not a lot of people would want
to drop 65 grand on a Kia, let's be real. But the people who would
spend 65 grand on this are also going to be considering
things like the Mach-E GT, the Tesla Model 3 Performance
or Model Y Performance, things in this price range that are high fun and high practical. All of those will have more
range than this, dramatically, every single one, by at least 100 miles. And so that's gonna be the
achilles heel of this GT is it's so much fun, and it's just such a
pain to charge two thirds or 60% more often than the others. I really wish I could love it more, but that's the thing
that's holding it back. That's the thing, Kia, it's
the thing, it's so close! Please make a version with 110 kilowatt hour
battery or something. This is 77, and you charge
it up to 100% every day, and it does its thing, but please make a high
battery pack version, please. Okay, it's my only request. That's it, thanks for watching. Catch you the next one, peace.
